Sunday, December 17, 2006

NFL Week 15 Reactions and Analysis:Bears Indicative of Sorry-Ass NFC

Here are my usual shallow, superficial first-takes on the NFL results today, with the usual encouragement to put your own analysis into the Comments section.

Updated Monday A.M.: My biggest question this morning: How bad is the NFC that the Giants are still in the playoff hunt? WTF?! (Tomlinson adulation is post above.)

The Bears may have clinched full NFC HFA, but take note of the way they let the Bucs back into the game... in Chicago.

So: Which of you FFL GMs with a playoff game today was ballsy enough to start Tim Rattay? (Anyone? Anyone?)

Kyle Boller? Really: Kyle Boller?

It's officially time to start asking what solid playoff position the Titans would be right now if Vince Young had started the entire season?

(Oh, and the Rookie of the Year award is o-v-a-h. Yes, even though his stats today weren't particularly good. Or any good. But the guy keeps winning. Who had Tennessee at .500 after Week 15? Exactly.)

Just when the entire world was fully on the Saints bandwagon, they go and lose at home to a terrible Redskins team.

"Too Little, Too Late" Award: Steelers.

Hell hath no fury like the Pats after their worst offensive performance of the Belichick Era.

(And how ya like the taste of zilch, Miami?)

Wait: With the Jags' loss and the Jets' win, is New York going to ice out Jax for the playoffs? (Not with that head-to-head record.)

Favre passes Marino in something? Yawn.

OK, *now* do you buy that Jay Cutler is a better QB than Matt Leinart? He only proved it head-to-freaking-head. (Oh, I can already hear your qualifier that Cutler has a better team around him. I argue that if they switched places, Cutler would still outperform Leinart.)

Oakland is playing like a team that REALLY wants to get that No. 1 overall NFL Draft pick. Kudos on the motivation!

You know what? The NFC effing sucks. The only redeeming value is that the Wild Card spots should be up for grabs through Week 17 – and may include a team with the dreaded .500 record.

VY sure was unspectacular, but it looks like they didn't have the ball much. My broadcast switched over on their last possession: it looked like a QB keeper and he decided to throw - BAD DECISION!! However, no turnovers. As long as he and Fisher are in TEN, they're going to win a lot of games.

Addendum:Even though St. Louis owns the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Packers, a win by them today over the Raiders (putting them at 6-8) would still rank them below the Packers because the Rams lose the divisional tie-breaker to the 49ers.

Well, of course it's funny. That's the whole point: it's fun working the scenarios. But gmen23's attitude bespoke a lack of knowing what the heck is going on in the league, as well as a lack of participation in the earlier comments sections when we as a group went over it.

Vince Young is the 31st ranked passer in the league. That makes him worthy of ROY over Colston who is pushing 1000 yards receiving? That would be a traveshamockery of the worst kind. I would vote for Joseph Addai over Vince Young.

Packers need to beat the Vikings and Bears (resting hopefully all their starters except Rex Grossman)

Giants needs to lose to New Orleans and Washington. Hopefully the Saints from last week will show up next week rather than the Saints from this week. The Redskins from this week are invited to show up.

Sadly, I do as well. Packers should've won by 28 today. I'm hoping they were just overlooking the Lions because of the short week before the Vikes. Too many opportunities blown.

It's also a sad day for Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila fans, as Cullen Jenkins looks like a better option on the end. KGB has always been one-dimensional as a pass-rusher, but his skills diminishing he was bringing nothing to the table anymore.

Dan I watched that Titans game and VY did not look very good today. There was a point in the 2nd half were J'Ville ran 30 consecutive plays. The Titans had one possession in the 3rd Qtr and then the offense did not touch the ball until the 6 minute mark of the 4th. In that time there was a fumble and int return for a TD.

As for ROY going to VY there is no way based on this performance he should be in the running. Throwing the ball on 3rd down with less than 2 minutes was a rookie mistake and since the Titans won the focus will not be on the mistakes he made. Saying that I am sure Merril Hoge will say that Young has no right being in the NFL after that performance and the Titans would be better off putting him at WR and starting Kerry Collins instead.

Remember that Monday night game when the Bears came back to beat the Cardinals and we all thought we'd never again see such an extreme case of a team overcoming an inept offense with defense and special teams?

The Titans may have topped that today. It would be an interesting debate, at least.

Who are you referring to here, Dan? I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and just assume you weren't referring to VY. Not after today's game. I mean, maybe he's ROY, but you can't use today to decide he deserves it.

James the big difference was the comeback the Bears D had to make. The Titans were down 10-7 at half and then thanks to a 70 yard kick return and a fumble and int for a TD they were up 24-10. I do not remember what the Bears score against the Cardinals was but I know they were down going into the 4th Qtr.

Vince Young has been one of the worst passers in the league this year. Worse than guys like Favre, Kitna, Frye, and Bruce f'n Gradkowski. Winning isn't just about the QB, as shown by today's game.

Does ANYBODY remember Vick earlier in his career, when he was making exciting plays and winning games and we were all ready to put him in Canton? Only problem is he, like VY, can't throw. And given time, defenses can plan for QBs that can't throw.

The ROY has to be Colston. I can't give VY any credit for a win where the defense scores 21 points. Colston was a 7th round pick and Vince was #3. Doesn't Dan always bring up the "exceeding your draft pick expectations" when he's touting the underdogs HE likes????

Wow, I'm shocked that Dan would minimize an accomplishment of Farve. I suppose if he had attended his wife's favorite school (Florida) then he would get more credit. As it is, Farve is among the handful of athletes/teams that Dan will kill any chance he gets (Farve, Redick, the Steelers,etc..) while any accomplishment of anyone associated with Florida (i.e. Reggie Nelson is the greatest defensive player I've ever seen, the Florida frontline is the best in college basketball in the last 25 years are just two examples) is wildly over-stated and blown out of proportion. Dan, seriously, for the sake of your own blog, you should at least give a thought to being more objective.

Oh, and one other thing, it is just a little over three weeks Dan until your wife's team (you did graduate from Northwestern right?) gets it's beatdown from the Buckeyes. No, I'm not a graduate of OSU and since I did graduate from a rival Big 10 school (Penn State) I usually root against them. However, I am making an exception on Jan. 8th because if Florida would happen to win, you would be insufferable. We'll see if the Gator/SEC apologists are still whining around about respect on 1/9. Something tells me that when Troy and the boys are done with UF it will be very quiet on the Southern front.

While I admit the Pack are far from perfect, they aren't awful. They did beat the 49ers (who can still win the West) last week pretty convincingly.

What I think happened this week is that the playcalling was designed to maximize Brett's TD record attempt. Didn't help that a wide-open TD pass was dropped. But at the same time, 1st and 10 at the Detroit 12 you should NOT be calling Pass-Pass-Pass(INT) (expect TMQ to mention this). The Lions run defense is non-existent, run against it!

Hopefully, now that the record is out of reach for this season (needs 8 in 2 games), the Packers playcalling will be better suited to winning rather than record-making.

ROY - It will probably go to VY even though it should not, Jones-Drew, Colston and Addai are all probably for me ranked above VY. How can the ROY be the 31st ranked passer out of the 32 starting QB's it tells me it not all him why they are winning. Especially when the team scores what 24 points and the defense and special teams accounted for 21 of it.

The only race that is over if the MVP, LdT is and should be the unamious choice for MVP. Brees ruined his chance with the stinker he put up this week.

One of the best things in this season is that with all these teams in contention and the Bears being the only team that has really clinched something you do not have to worry about teams resting starts for the FFL championship games most of which take place this coming week.

@crumbbum Vick did not start until the very end of his first year and then blew up his 2nd year. I think what is going to help VY in the long run is his willingness to stay in the pocket and try to work through his progressions which will help him next year.

Just to be clear, QB ranking is not the end all-be all of judging a QB (doesn't take into account running, or big plays, or plays that win the game). Vince Young being 31st in rankings is no reason not to give him rookie of the year.

That being said, the race surely isn't 'ovah', because young had nothing to do with the TN win yesterday. Colston and Jones-Drew are still very much in it.

As for the steelers, it is too little, too late. Although still technically in it, they have almost no shot, because they lose the tie-breaker to just about every team in the race. But they are playing well, and I am looking forward to the rematches against ballimore and cincy. If they manage to win those, it makes the offseason a little less bitter, as we can look forward to a year with a more experienced (and hopefully less injured) roethlisberger.

Actually the Patriots yardage was more based on field position than anything else. It is hard to rack up alot of yardage when your average starting field postion was the Texans 48 yard line. I was at the game yesterday and I can only remember once they had a long field to work with.

ROY- now that Colston is getting the Michigan effect (hasn't played) it has to go to Bush or the Bowling Ball in jax...did i read someone say Mangold for ROY? that's a cavalier statement and I am still scarred from the NFL Gameday story on his sister

2) Out of the next three games (last one too, actually) the only one that matters is the fourth--a playoff game. They earned this by winning TWELVE of their first fourteen games. Unfortunately, teams that don't do this can't afford to bogey a game. But somehow they're superior to the Bears?

3) Last year, the Colts were praised for their wisdom for effectively throwing their last games, to be ready for the playoffs. I know this isn't the same, but do you really think the Bears are throwing out all the stops in a meaningless game?

Connect With Me

Quickish

About This Blog

DanShanoff.com is a sports-blog spin-off of my long-time ESPN.com column, "The Daily Quickie." Anchored by an early-morning post of must-know topics, the blog is updated frequently throughout the day with new posts and user comments.